Dh Lawrence Women In Love Analysis

Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence Women in Love Themes
Marriage and Work
The four central characters of Lawrence’s novel test the expectations of their society, chiefly through their unconventional attitudes toward the institutions of marriage and work. Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen are spirited and independent women, although they are not from the upper class. Meanwhile, Gerald and Birkin are their social superiors, but both men are drawn to the Brangwens and pursue marriages that defy social norms. Birkin views the hyper productivity of the modern era as a mistake, and thinks that work cannot save humanity. Gerald meanwhile throws himself into his work, but believes in the advancement of technology as a means of mastering the material of the

Lawrence was both an iconoclast and a Christian, and Women in Love presents a unique concept of sacred sensuality. Unlike forms of protestant Christianity that attempt to deny or rebuke erotic passion, Lawrence’s ideal form of Christian life fully embraces erotic passion as a holy expression of God’s creation. This idea is most clearly represented in the union of Ursula and Birkin, which the novel describes in terms that evoke the biblical tale of Adam and Eve. When Ursula and Birkin visit the inn in Beldover for afternoon tea, Ursula suddenly sees her lover as an original son of God, an allusion to the book of Genesis. When the two leave the inn and decide to spend the night on the floor of Sherwood Forest, Lawrence’s imagery evokes the Garden of Eden and suggests that Birkin and Ursula have a sacred union that is equal parts of carnal and spiritual sensuality. Lawrence’s novel idealizes a holy form of sensuality that unites the earthly passions of the flesh with the soul of

Birkin especially finds an essential connection of truth between the two. At Julius Halliday’s house, Gerald ponders an African carving of a woman giving birth, and asks Birkin what he thinks of it. Brikin tells Gerald it is real “art,” and when Gerald asks why Birkin replies the piece "conveys a complete truth” and contains a pure sensual knowledge passed down for generations. For Birkin, art is best when it successfully communicates a core aspect of human life without attempting to detach from its physical basis. Birkin's view of art contrasts sharply with Gudrun’s. She believes, likeHerr Loerke, that art and life must be strictly separate. When she discusses art with Loerke, she claims “life doesn’t really matter – it is one’s art which is central.” For Gudrun, art is a supreme reality, and life can never be completely whole or true. She believes that art elevates one’s being above the muck of life, making it the purest form of human expression in its ideal state. Gudrun longs for forms of aesthetic experience and expression above all things – instances of freedom and autonomy from the physical limitations of life